Two of the last three contests have resulted in Nats wins - one against the Angels, who may be the best in baseball, and one against the O's, who were red-hot and just finished doing to the Cubs what they did to the Nats last night. I'm looking forward to today's game, and was privileged to attend Wednesday's against the A's and last night against the O's. What an atmosphere last night! Almost 40,000 for a friendly rivalry with civility you'd not encounter in NY, Boston, or Philly. I'm looking forward to today's game.

"It doesn't seem to me that there's any complicated formula to building an expansion team. . . You go for young players and understand it's going to take time. . . [They] get their brains beat out early in the season, [and are] doing fine now."
Jim Bouton, Ball 4, August 23, last paragraph (1970)

It is true that the injuries and poor play are moving the Plan further along more quickly than intended. I hope that Clippard and Mcok regain their form in AAA, because the Nats would be well-served if they could trade Odalis Perez. If Perez pitches as he has this year (wins and losses notwithstanding), I think that is a reasonable expectation.

Four of the eight position players are "utility" men. The leadoff hitter's making his major league debut. If nothing else, these guys will show FLop how to play hard. O's Exec, hopefully poetic justice will descend upon you and he'll be yours in the next few days...

With all the player hatin' because they're not gung-ho enough, another quote would be useful:

"I got to thinking about some basic differences in the two games for the players. Baseball players play so many games it's impossible to get emotionally high for any one of them. Football players get all gung-ho in the locker room. . . . If a baseball player got that emotional, he'd go out swinging hard-and miss. I think baseball is more of a skill sport than any other. Hitting is the single most difficult feat in sports. Second most difficult is preventing hitting."
Jim Bouton, Ball Four, August 31 (1970)